Monday, August 30, 2004

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

I stand at the forefront of the digital revolution in my professional life and my artistic endeavors. But I also embrace the traditional techniques of photography and see their place as a specialty niche into the future. Economics, however often dictate other necessities and hard times have hit a number of companies that are specialized in film photography.

Recently there have been reports of Kodak stopping production of reusable film cameras and their film division has also been hard hit. Now it looks as if Ilford, the venerable maker of Black and White film and photographic papers will likely have to close their film division, though their Swiss division which produces inkjet papers appears viable and will survive the restructuring.

I have long been a fan of Ilford products and am particularly fond of some of their Black and White emulsions, particularly the FP4 and HP5 films. But this was inevitable. The digital revolution is here and more and more photographers, both professional and amateur are making the switch to a 100% digital workflow. I hope that traditional materials will continue to be produced, but I can't see any one company that can build their entire business around them. Before too many years it will be a niche market, providing materials to students, traditionalists, experimental artists and a few Luddites.

It is with a sense of inevitability and sadness that I write this, seeing as how I do my fair share to promote digital photography, but the magic of mixing up chemicals and seeing an image appear under the safe lights as they swirl around in the developer bath is a wondrous thing that budding photographers of the future may never know.

Friday, August 27, 2004

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Mind of it's own

This article from the New York Times raises an interesting question. Does your iPod have a brain, and does it express personal preferences.

Most of the day, either on my iPod or on my iBook, I have the Party Shuffle randomly playing songs from my music library in the background. With a mere 2000 or so songs in my library, from artists wide ranging, I seem to hear an inordinate amount of Patti Smith and Brian Eno. Could be worse.

The writer also mentions the hazard of shuffle,when a long forgotten, inappropiate, Mothers of Invention tune might come on in mixed company. Naming that tune in 3 notes followed by a quick finger to the next button can be your only hope.

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

The Facts of Life

Under the heading Fast Facts: Swift Boat Ads Fox News has reproduced, not a fact checker on the mis-truths of the Swift Boat ads, not even an attack on any Kerry misstatements, but instead, their idea of "facts" is to reproduce a transcript of the ads.

I guess in a perverted way, if the fact you wanted to check was "what is the content of the ad," then this is factual.

In the category of "First kill all the lawyers..." Wired news reports that This Land really does belong to you and me.

Rob Galbraith has an in depth review of the Canon 20D. If you hadn't guessed, that is my next camera. Rob notes that the 20D is more camera than first glance might indicate.

While the initial selling price of the 20D will be roughly the same as the EOS 10D when it first shipped in 2003 (about US$1500 in the US), and the 20D sure looks like the 10D too, in almost every other way the specifications of Canon's latest digital SLR suggest it's targeted at newspaper photographers in smaller markets, up-and-coming wedding shooters and others who need both a responsive, versatile camera and a high-quality, high-resolution image file. It looks like Canon set out to build the EOS-1D Mark II's little brother.

George of Fool in the Forest commented yesterday on the theft of The Scream. George is overly fond of wordplay, but the Daily Show took the prize for the best pun on this subject. Their report was entitled, Felonious Munch. We also shared this take on The Scream.

Sounds and Fury offer two posts on photography. First Adam's Remembered is well worth your time. And secondly, ACD picks up the subject of Color Landscape Photography not passing the Jabberwocky Test. AC and I had a brief exchange on this subject some time back. I maintained that Color Landscape photography could be art, but when we managed to clarify our terminology to include the word "straight", I relented. The point being that Black and White is by nature abstract, while Color requires some intentional manipulation to achieve abstraction.

For months DPReview.com's forums have been rampant with rumors of Canon's expected replacement for their midrange digital SLR, the 10D. Well it is semi-official. Pictures from Canon's website have leaked and an announcement is expected by end of week.

It appears that it will be more of an incremental upgrade to the existing 10D, not a revolutionary jump forward. The 1.6 crop factor will be retained but augmented by a couple of new EF-S lenses that will allow better wide angle coverage with the smaller sized sensor.

Also expect 8.2 megapixels (up from 6), faster startup, bigger buffer and frame rate and more focusing points. It should be slightly lighter in weight as well.

Bob Atkins has kindly collected the rumors and known specs into a single article at his website. Read it here.

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Futurballa Goes to Hell

Via AC Douglas at Sounds & Fury, the Dante's Inferno test. We here at Futurballa are pretty darn virtuous for an agnostic Jew, and are merely sentenced to a prolonged stay in Limbo. How low can you go?

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to the First Level of Hell - Limbo!Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Monday, August 09, 2004

Vertigo

In the DVD player last night... Hitchcock's Vertigo.Watching again after several years, I was struck by how leisurely movies were paced back then and could still be called a "thriller". The San Juan Bautista and San Francisco scenery is beautiful and surprisingly much of it unchanged in almost 50 years, with the exception of the tower at the mission that plays such a pivotal roll, but that didn't even exist in Hitchcock's day. He added it. I was also struck by the fact that Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak seem to never have left the studio in Hollywood. The scenery all seems to be projected behind them.

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Henri Cartier-Bresson 1908-2004

One of the greats of 20th century photography has passed away, and the BBC online has some very good links in the righthand sidebar. I'm afraid to say that upon reading of his passing I was surprised to find out that he was still alive.

Bresson pioneered what today would be termed street photography and is said to have coined the phrase decisive moment. He was among the first photographers to be called a photojournalist.

Michael Blowhard offers up a primer in Film Noir, or as he calls it Film Noir 101. If you are unfamiliar with the genre or in need of a short refresher course, it is well worth your time.

I would only differ from him in his dismissal of Polanski's Chinatown, which is in a completely different league from the rest of the "neo noir" knockoffs that he mentions, such as L.A. Confidential and Body Heat. And in the category of neo noir, I will admit a soft spot for The Big Easy. But that is mainly for the fantastic soundtrack.

His acknowledgement of Cyber Punk and Graphic Novels by the likes of Frank Miller as being offshoots of Noir is a well taken point, though he glosses over the Noir influences on many of the Nouvelle Vague films of the sixties. And I must bring into question the ordering of his list of notable Noirs. Putting Kubrick's The Killing above Out of the Past, well that seems plain old contrarian to me. And I must also fault him slightly for the sin of omission. While it can be categorized as the first Neo Noir, in that it is a self conscious Noir styling, Orson Welles' Noir, A Touch of Evil is certainly worth a mention (along with Lady From Shanghai). And I might have given an honorable mention to Robert Aldrich's filming of Mickey Spillane's Kiss Me Deadly.

Monday, August 02, 2004

The Dead

Filling out the disclosures on our condo last night I was struck by an odd question. After the usual list of questions about earthquake, flood, and hurricane. After disclosing every water stain, chipped tile and crack in the walls. And after informing the prospective buyer of chirping birds, traffic noise, and cat feces. Near the end of the document the question was posed, "has anyone ever died on the premises, to the best of your knowledge".

Now I can get behind asking, has anyone ever died and not been discovered for more than a week on the premises. Or if someone died of a highly contagious disease. But the fact that someone has died by itself should be something that one needs to disclose seems odd to me. Has anyone given birth on the premises? I don't see that question anywhere. Seems like both are normal events that happen to us at least once in each lifetime (depending on your beliefs about reincarnation or being born again, etc.).

I lived in Holland for 11 years, and saw that in other countries it is fairly normal that both birth and death occur in the home. In America we have made an effort to hide both events behind the doors of hospitals. And now, that someone might have peacefully passed away in their sleep, while residing at your address, must be disclosed to warn the unsuspecting purchaser that, wait, don't buy this house, it has been visited by the grim reaper himself, is disturbing to me.